PEOPLE WANT CEASE-FIRE IN WAR ON DRUGS

While the people's choice for president may come down to a smudged postmark
on a rejected absentee ballot, there is at least one issue on which the
American people provided a crystal clear indication of what their will is:
the war on drugs. They want a cease-fire.

Three weeks ago, voters in five states overwhelmingly passed drug policy
reform initiatives, including Proposition 36 in California, which will
shift the criminal justice system's focus from incarceration to treatment.
The measure garnered more than 60 percent of the popular vote, 7 percent
more than Al Gore received in the state and 18 percent more than George W.
Bush.

Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a mandate.

In fact, since 1996, 17 of the 19 drug policy reform initiatives have
passed. But despite that rather unambiguous expression of the popular will,
politicians repeatedly have failed to honor it. When the people of
California voted in 1996 to allow the medical use of marijuana, then-Gov.
Pete Wilson called it "a mistake" that "effectively legalizes the sale of
marijuana," and the federal government went to court to overturn the wishes
of the electorate.

But perhaps this year, with the margins of victory growing enviably higher,
politicians are beginning to see the writing - smudges, dimpled, hanging
and otherwise - on the voting booth wall. When Proposition 36 passed
despite being solidly opposed by the California political establishment,
the response of Gov. Gray Davis, who had campaigned against it, was: "The
people have spoken."

And thank God, because it is in Mr. Davis' state that their voices will
have the greatest impact: A third of California's inmates are behind bars
on drug charges. Under Proposition 36, up to 36,000 nonviolent drug
offenders and parole violators are expected to be put into treatment
programs instead. The initiative earmarks $ 120 million annually to fund
those programs, as well as family counseling and job and literacy training.

With its shift from high-cost imprisonment to low-cost treatment,
Proposition 36 is estimated to save taxpayers more than $ 200 million a
year - and an additional $ 500 million by eliminating the need for new
prisons. As University of California-Berkeley professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore
pointed out, "California has spent more than $ 5 billion building and
expanding more than 23 prisons in the past 20 years, while only one new
university has been built from the ground up."

At the same time, voters in Utah and Oregon passed by enormous margins - 69
and 66 percent, respectively - initiatives designed to make it harder for
police to seize the property of suspected drug offenders. Just as
significantly, all proceeds from forfeited assets now will be used to fund
drug treatment or public education programs instead of to fill the coffers
of law enforcement agencies. Both measures were backed by people from
across the ideological spectrum.

And in Colorado and Nevada, voters passed initiatives making marijuana
legal for medical use - joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine,
Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia.

Meanwhile, post-election editorials in papers across the country reflected
the public's radical rethinking of the drug war. Newsweek even devoted its
election week cover story to "America's Prison Generation," the 14 million
mostly black or Latino Americans who will spend part of their lives behind
bars because of drug war policies.

"The future of drug policy reform," said Ethan Nadelmann, who heads the
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, "will be at the state and local
levels, where people are searching for pragmatic solutions to local drug
problems. The White House and the new Congress should stay tuned."

As for our two presidents-in-waiting, they have said remarkably little
about the drug war - other than that they plan to get tougher on it. But if
either candidate enjoyed the support that drug reform did, he would be
packing boxes now. The resounding success of drug policy reform initiatives
makes it clear that whoever ends up occupying the Oval Office had better
change his tune if he intends to do more than pay lip service to honoring
the will of the people.

Arianna Huffington's column is distributed by Tribune Media Services. Her
e-mail address is arianna@ariannaonline.com.